Step By Step

Serve a batch at a time in a fish bowl and get your party swimming!

The Bloody Mary is one of my favorite brunch drinks (and really the only time I find tomato juice to be worthwhile). But most mixes I find to be a kind of bland, especially after you mix them with ice and vodka.

So I like to make my own mix, spiked with lots of hot sauce, horseradish and Worcestershire sauce. If you’re feeding a crowd it’s fun to make the mix in a big fish bowl and let people scoop out the mix on their own (plus any fun garnishes they can find floating around).

Of course, a good mix is crucial. Try to use good tomato juice and go heavy on the add-ins. I gave rough guidelines in the recipe, but feel free to customize to your liking.

The other fun part about serving everything in a fish bowl is you can really pack it full of garnishes. I add in loads of pickle spears, olives, spicy peppers, celery sticks, and crispy bacon strips. As people ladle out their mix, they can fish for their favorite garnishes!

For this recipe, a one-gallon fish bowl is plenty big and will leave you room for lots of ice as well. This will keep the mixture really nice and cold.

One note on this fish bowl idea: I do not recommend adding the vodka into the fish bowl with the mix. The vodka and tomato juice are different densities and if they sit awhile, they might separate out which could leave some drinks really weak and some dangerously strong.

So let people add their own vodka to each glass. I recommend about two ounces of vodka for each 6-8 ounces of mix.

Of course, the mix is so good that even with no vodka, it’s a nice, spicy drink!